The #EndBadGovernance Protests dominated social media even more than Nigeria’s participation in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Elements included the protests and the drama they caused across the land, President Bola Tinubu’s address to citizens and the reactions it generated, and the continuation of the protests despite Tinubu’s call for a halt.
As we went to press, the protests entered their sixth day on Wednesday, 7 August. Participants added hunger to the hashtag, becoming #EndHungerandBadGovernance.
President Bola Tinubu addressed citizens twice in one week. His initial broadcast drew strident criticisms from citizens and even Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, a core supporter. Soyinka lashed at the lack of empathy in failing to address the brutality against citizens.
On Wednesday, 7 August 2024, the State House released a video wherein BAT addressed citizens with more empathy. Tinubu declared, “Fellow Nigerians, this period may be hard on us, and there’s no doubt that it is tough on us, but I urge you all to look beyond the present temporary pains and aim at the larger picture. `All our good and helpful plans are in the works. More importantly, I know they would work. Sadly, there was an avoidable lag between subsidy removal and these plans coming fully online.”
The president added, “I plead with you, please, have faith in our ability to deliver and in our concern for your well-being. We will get out of this turbulence and due to the measures we have taken, Nigeria will be better equipped and able to take advantage of the future that awaits her. For example, we shall fulfil our promise to make education more affordable to all and provide loans to higher education students who may need them. No Nigerian students will have to abandon higher education system because of lack of money. Our commitment is to promote the greatest good for the greatest number of our people. On principle, we shall never falter, I assure you, my fellow countrymen and women, that we are exiting the darkness to enter a new and glorious dawn. Now, I must get back to work to make this vision come true.”
Heavy criticism trailed the president’s first address across media platforms. Here is circulated across platforms without a byline.
President Bola Ahmad Tinubu, I Disagree That You Inherited A Dilapidated Nigeria From Former President Muhammadu Buhari. Below Are My Reasons
How Can A President That Claimed To Have Inherited A Dilapidated Nigeria Be Spending Public Funds Extravagantly As If You Inherited A Rich And Prosperous Country?
How Would You Justify The Following Extravagant Spendings Under Your Government:
-21 Billion Naira To Renovate The Vice President’s House; 70 Billion Naira To The National Assembly Members To Buy SUVs At The Cost of 160 Million Naira Per One For Senators And House Of Representatives Members; 4 Billion Naira To Renovate Dodan Barrack Lagos, Another 3 Billion Naira To Renovate Aguda House; 5 Billion Naira Was Given To the Presidential Tax Reforms Committee, headed by Taiwo Oyedele. The committee consisted of less than twenty people and has Nothing To Show For It.
—1.5 Billion Naira To Purchase Cars For Your Wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, even though Our Constitution does not recognise the First Lady’s Office; 300% Salary Increase For The Judges, Which The Insensitive And Irresponsible Senators Speedily passed; 5 Billion Naira Was Budgeted For Presidential Fleet Of Cars; Billions Of Naira Was Budgeted For Your Trips, Including Vice President Kashim Shettima, To The Detriment Of The Citizens.
Every senator is paid 21 Million Naira Monthly, and the House of Representatives Earns 13.5 Million Monthly. Your Government Did All The Increment.
-The 15 Trillion Naira Lagos Calabar Coastal Road Was Illegally Awarded to Your Friend, Lebanese Gilbert Chagoury, Who Was Repatriated Back To His Country By Former President Obasanjo.
You Have The Largest Ministers in Nigeria’s History. Where are you sourcing money to pay them? You Went Ahead To Create Another Ministry Of Livestock Development; what happened to Oronsaye’s Report Of Downsizing And Merging Some Of The Agencies, Parastatals, And Departments?
Where Was the Subsidy Money Removed From Petroleum Products and Electricity? How Much Was Saved, And What Was The Money Used For, President Bola Ahmad Tinubu? Nigerians Are Demanding To Know; The Cost Of Governance Has Not Reduced. Instead, It Has Increased Massively.
Fuel Subsidy Removed; Electricity Tariff Hiked; Education Beyond Ordinary Citizens; Health Services Beyond Ordinary Citizens; Foodstuffs Beyond Ordinary Citizens; Insecurity And Killings On The Increase; Collapsed Economy; Unemployment On The Increase; Corruption And Theft of Public Funds Legalised—nepotism Top On Your Agenda.
The president, Vice President, and Governor’s Security Votes Remained Intact, and all the allowances paid to our leaders remained intact. No single support a citizen of Nigeria deserves from the government; there is none. Renewed Hopelessness, Destitution And Deception
Mr President Bola Ahmad Tinubu, Governors, Ministers And Top Government Officials, Including The Service Chiefs, Heads Of Agencies, Departments And Parastatals, Your Lifestyle And Extravagant Spending Of Public Funds Does Not In Any way Show That President Tinubu Inherited A Dilapidated Nigeria
Leaders Are Getting Richer; Citizens Are Getting Poorer; Look At How President Bola Ahmad Tinubu Has Been Transformed Physically, Mentally And Financially To The Detriment Of Nigerians
This Trend Must Be Arrested.
2. Defiance and deep anger.
Headlines before and during the protests conveyed deep citizen anger. Some of them read:
1. Hunger Protest: We can’t be intimidated; action will continue until Tinubu accedes to our demands – Protesters in Abuja
2. Twenty-five groups reportedly shunned protests after meeting with the Reps’ speaker. Twenty-five civil society organisations (CSOs) have cancelled their participation in the protest scheduled for 1-10 August after a town hall meeting hosted by Speaker of the House of Representatives Abbas Tajudeen. Executive Director of the Centre for Change and Democracy Studies, Matthew Nabut, said this on behalf of the group in a statement in Abuja on Thursday.
3. Protesters block Keffi-Abuja highway. Apart from blocking the highway, the protesters, in their hundreds, also set fire to car tyres and threatened to beat up motorists who refused to retreat.
4. Police attack and injure Premium Times journalist. The police officers hit Yakubu Mohammed w with the butt of their gun and their batons until he sustained injuries on his head.
5. Hundreds protest across Nigeria over soaring living and fuel prices—Al Jazeera. Demonstrators voice discontent over government reforms that have triggered high inflation and devalued the currency.
Social media kept a record of happenings.
*EndBadGovernance” PROTEST Statistic Update:
DAY ONE- Death toll – 21; Injuries – 175; Number of arrests: 1,154.
*Curfews declared: Yobe, Maiduguri, Kano.
4. *States with cases of violence: Abuja, Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Cross River, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Lagos, Osun, Niger, Rivers, Zamfara, Borno, Yobe
5. *States where peaceful PROTEST was recorded: Plateau, Taraba, Delta, Edo, Benue, Nasarawa, Ogun
6. *Approximate worth of goods lost: 6 billion Naira
7. *States with No PROTEST: Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo
DAY TWO:
1. Police fired Teargas at PROTESTERS in Abuja.
2. A Police Officer mistakenly kills a Colleague while trying to Shoot at peaceful PROTESTERS in Katsina.
MORE UPDATES COMING
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